DougStanhope

Season 2 of 'Louie' (Thu., 10:30PM on FX) has seemed determined to be way more than just a comedy. With some TV success under his belt and full creative control of his show, Louis C.K. has used the show to explore all sides of the human experience. He's honestly reflected on his own TV failures, family life, tackled celebrity and jokestealing in the Dane Cook episode, and slept with Joan Rivers.

The shows continued to play with dark themes last night, as Louis reunited with an old comedy buddy named Eddie, played by Doug Stanhope. The two had come up together in their early stand-up days in New York, but grew apart as Louis found success and Eddie fell further into drinking and got stuck performing at hole-in-wall clubs.

They hadn't spoken for years when Eddie calls Louis, asks him to meet up, and takes him on a tour of his current station in life, before very matter-of-factly telling him that he's thinking about committing suicide with some pills his Doctor gave him. It's in this twisted scenario that 'Louie' delivers one of its realest-feeling moments yet, as Louis refuses to talk his friend off the ledge in a conventional way, instead offering him his own at once bleak and oddly profound theory on life.